Merry Christmas

Making Some Progress...

Last week was my finals week. Now with all of the schoolwork out of my way, I have been busily working on finishing up some paintings for Christmas presents! Only a few more days... I think I can make it in time. I'm just worried about the paint drying before then!

A large autumn picture for my mom:

A winter painting for my grandparents:

And finally, a picture of a dog for a client (complete!):

Do you have any last minute Christmas preparations as well?

Hurry, Little Elves!

Now that the last art fair of the season is over, I have been frantically working on putting some Christmas presents together. Here's a look at what occupied my afternoon:

More pics once it is finished! :)

Snow and a Show

This weekend was my second craft show for which I'd been busily preparing for the last two months. My husband and I got up early on Saturday morning (isn't my boyfriend-for-life wonderful?) to pack my car up with merchandise and found the ground completely covered with snow. What a wonderful surprise! This was very unseasonable weather for the area and suited the day's holiday festivities very well.

The show was in the gym of the seminary I attend. It only took my husband and I about 20 minutes to get set up. Score! Before the show began, I was able to wander around and meet some fantastic artists.

Me in front of my display. I liked how it fit together so colorfully! :)
I was hoping that there would be a younger shoppers with the seminary and university in town, but was a bit disappointed that the majority turn-out was women with old-time country, traditional tastes. Not so good for the styles of the things I create.

Also surprising to me were the things that sold. Only one mini scrapbook and one mini painting sold, which were the things that I thought would sell quickly. Instead, I just about sold out of handmade cards.

The BIG surprise, though, was when a very nice young woman bought one of my large paintings for her daughter's nursery!
As if that could not be topped, I woke up the next morning to find that someone from the United Kingdom had bought another one of my paintings from my Etsy shop! :)
As exciting as it was to sell these two paintings, I was also sad to see them go. :(

Overall, I had a good time selling my items at the craft show. The biggest lesson I learned? It doesn't matter how beautiful your items are or how creative your display is if the venue does not suit your demographics. From now on, I will be scouting out some more contemporary venues geared toward my personal style.

Now that this is done, I'm off to write papers and start painting some Christmas presents! :)

Christmas Art Fair

These past few weeks have been VERY busy in my little studio... Not only have I been prepping for an art fair this Saturday, but I've been fulfilling custom orders and painting Christmas presents. Oh, did I mention that I'm in graduate school too?

Here are some shots of my practice set-up for this weekend. The lovely pegboards are courtesy of my wonderful grandparents. I don't know how I did the last fair without these for my paintings!


Some mini paintings with easel displayed on a little bookshelf.

I picked up a tiered kitchen basket from Hobby Lobby and am using it to create a spacial display for my mini scrapbooks.

After the fair this weekend and final papers due next week I will be feeling much better. Whew! :)